SPOKANE COUNTY, Wash. — Several races in Washington have already been called, but the work to sort through ballots is far from finished in the country.
Thousands of votes are still to be counted and poll workers here in Spokane understand how that process works.
“Every step of the way is expected by the voters to be perfect,” explained Spokane County Auditor Vicky Dalton.
They spend years getting prepared for Election Day and, just because the day has come and gone, doesn’t mean their job is finished.
The work continues until Nov. 24 to get all ballots certified through a process that takes teamwork and lots of effort just to ensure no major problems occur on the first Tuesday of November.
“Staff just kept right on going and taking care of everybody and just the excitement as people dropped their envelopes into that drop box,” Dalton said.
Opening the Spokane Arena as a service center ended up helping 2,500 people cast their ballot.
Now that the election is officially over, there’s a sense of relief for those at the elections office because they understand how important their responsibility is. The anticipation that came with 2020 could be felt by almost every voter they came in contact with.
“Voters really participated in democracy this year,” said Dalton. “Voters got their ballots into us here in Spokane earlier than normal, in greater numbers than we would normally see.”
Dalton has seen plenty of elections that were too close to call after polls initially closed.
In 2000, she worked during the presidential race between George W. Bush and Al Gore.
The 2004 governor race in Washington was undecided until a hand recount took place so she has an idea of what it may be like for other states as they sort through remaining ballots.
“It’s not over until every ballot that’s qualified is counted and that may take weeks.”
Once the election is certified in Spokane, results will go to the state level who then spend a week finalizing results for the year.